Battlefield 4 single-player campaign is DICE trying to 'grow up'

The Battlefield series has thrived on multiplayer, so it was a bit of a surprise when it was announced at GDC that Battlefield 4 would focus more on a single-player campaign. Developer DICE wants to create more than just a shooter experience and have players form a bond with the characters.

The Battlefield series has thrived on multiplayer, so fans were a bit disappointed to see Battlefield 4's debut would focus on the single-player campaign. However, developer DICE says it wants to create more than just a shooter experience and have players form a bond with the characters.

"For us, it's important to grow up a bit and create a great story, a character you care about, where you feel involved in their actions and that's based on the core idea of the whole game," executive producer Patrick Bach said.

"For a game like Battlefield, you could argue that it's just a shooter, so who cares," Bach told Edge. But, he argues that "if you're playing multiplayer, you actually care about the guys in your squad. Those are often your friends, they have their personalities, you help them, they help you, and they have their own mindset. Now we need to create a single-player that mimics that feeling."

From there, he said, multiplayer can take things on display in the single-player campaign. "It's a great showcase of a lot of different aspects of the game... If you look at [the GDC] demo, you can extrapolate a lot of features that you can then translate into either the single-player or the multiplayer."